Given all the coverage in the lead-up, I was beginning to think it would never come.
As I stated in my recent Blog - I think there should be this 10th Anniversary - but that should be it. We in the West need to get back to normalcy.
Much of the commentary in the lead-up has queried whether or not "we are safer 10 years later"?
I can understand why this question is raised so often but to me, it misses the real point. The Real Point being; have we lost our footing during this timeframe?
And I believe we have done just that. But I also believe we will eventually regain it.
Since 9/11, $trillions have been spent on 'security' while at the same time our freedoms have been slashed.
The very serious problems we now face in regard to the economies of the West can be directly linked to the tragedies of that day.
So too can be the invasion of our collective privacy and the indignities suffered when travelling, visiting government facilities, the thickening border, our growing suspicions of neighbours and so on.
In that regard, the Islamists have won a great victory over the course of this last decade. Not for the heinous 9/11 attack itself but because we have turned ourselves inside out in the face of fear.
When we needed Roosevelt's "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" - we got shoe removals, and invasive x-rays when attempting to board a plane.
Little olde ladies bent over and frail get searched by those sometimes looking more like terrorists themselves.
We needed strong leadership and got pygmies (my apologies to pygmies but I am not talking about size rather courage).
In the next 10 years we need to look fear in the eye and say "get out of my way". Bypass the airport security lines and get right on board. Tell government to get out of our e-mails. Open up the Borders like they used to be pre 9/11. Stop issuing Terror Alerts - let the Authorities deal with those behind the scenes since all these Alerts accomplish is to terrorize the citizens.
Continue to go after the Terrorist Cowards behind the scenes and in that regard, the unmanned drones have been most successful in eliminating this cancer.
Collapse the many Security Organs into a few well coordinated ones. The monies saved can be used to restore our economies and return to us our lost freedoms.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
